Faith is the Way of Experience by Rev. Jae-seok Lee

August 29, 2010, Cheon Bok Gung, Yongsan Seoul Korea

Welcoming Remarks by Hyung Jin Nim:

Hello, brothers and sisters. We are in France. You can see the Eiffel tower behind us. In August of 1965, Father came here and established a holy ground. We were not actually scheduled to come to France, but recently, a second generation member passed into the spiritual world. For that reason, we came to France. We can see many miraculous things happening here. God is protecting all the blessed members from around the world. So we had an offering service to God and True Parents. Today, you will be listening to the sermon of Rev. Jae-seok Lee in Korea and we will return and meet you in Korea next Sunday. From France, we would like to greet you.

Main Sermon by Rev. Jae-seok Lee

Hello, everyone. The morning and the afternoon worship services’ atmosphere was quite similar, I felt. First, let us read from the words of our True Parents: Life, Love, and the World of the Eternal Soul, pages 231-235.

“For the people of faith, learning through experience is absolutely necessary. This is the way we find out about God’s character and at the same time, we can feel the bond or the internal shimjung we can have. The path of learning through experience is the only way we can feel this. Through a life of faith, we can feel happiness and a new hope. This can only happen though this process of learning through experience.

“The heart has a gateway called the shimmun. When we feel we can pray very well, this means we are closer to God and feel Him closer to us. So if we keep going inward, all the way deep down, we meet God’s gateway. When God’s gateway and the gateway to our own heart are completely one with each other, we can feel God’s love and heart and be in a position to learn though experience.

“What is important to one who wants to live a life of faith? It is to make sure that the gateway to our own heart coincides with the gateway to God’s heart. We must always be prepared for this. In our lives, we must have the attitude of matching ourselves to God. We must always open our hearts to God’s gateway and have our own gateway pointed towards heaven all the time.

“The more we match our gateway to God’s gateway, the more we will be able to feel things we have not been able to feel before, and develop the field of our heart and go into the realm where our heart resonates with the heart of God. When our heart resonates with God, we can develop our heartistic senses. In those vibrations, we can lose the consciousness of ourselves and become stronger spiritually and have spiritual experiences. Therefore, this kind of learning through experience is very important for our life of faith.”

I would like to summarize what Father said. Father talks about the importance of a life of faith where we learn through experience. Why is this so important? That is because we are able to establish bonds with God’s shimjung and character. Also, we are able to feel a new heart and experience God. When we experience God, we feel happiness.

What is the method for that kind of faith through experience? The gateway to my heart and the gateway to God’s heart have to meet. They have to be one. When that standard is met, when we open our heart in the direction of God’s heart, we can feel the wavelength of God’s heart and we can vibrate in resonance with God’s heart. Then God’s heart will explode within me. I will feel the tremendous vibrations of God’s heart. That is how God enters into my heart. In other words, when our wavelength matches God’s wavelength, we are able to be one with God.

What happens then? Our spiritual strength increases and we are able to lead a life of faith. The field of our heart becomes developed. We are purified, we lose our fallen nature and we are able to have spiritual experiences. What Father emphasizes again and again is that we cannot trust a person who does not have experience, although he may have a life of faith. We must experience our life of faith.

Right now, our Ambassadors for Peace know more and more about the Principle. However, a person who has not met God, who has not yet experienced faith, from True Parent’s position, cannot be trusted. This is a conclusion we can draw from today’s words.

Let us think for a moment. What is religion? Religion is a pathway to God. There are many religions on the earth and new ones are created every day, and some religions are disappearing every day. What is the purpose of religion? The primary pathway to God is prayer. When you see someone praying a lot, you say that person has a lot of faith. And the person you never see praying, you must conclude that that person must not have a very good life of faith. So we can say that prayer represents faith.

We cannot see God. How can we have a real sense of God and believe in a God that cannot be seen? To believe in God means to meet God through prayer. What happens when we meet God and we are able to come to know God? We come to resemble Him. According to the principles that we have studied, my heart becomes God’s heart and my character becomes God’s character. I become the embodiment of God, the house or holy temple of God. This is the completion of human beings which is taught in the Principle of Creation.

All religions talk about prayer and a life of faith. What is the difference between these religions? All religions are the way individuals seek God. The founder of every religion created a path for individuals to meet God. What is the greatness of Father’s way? They have established a religion of True Parents and a way for families to establish the Kingdom of Heaven within themselves.

We attend the Unification Church and we need to understand the difference between the Unification Church and other religions. This is the difference: other religions establish the way for individuals to seek salvation and to meet God; the Unification Church has graduated beyond that to go to a new level where as a family unit we seek after God. That is why we took down the sign board for HSA-UWC and put up the symbol for the Family Federation.

So why did we go back to the Unification Church? Some people asked me about that. We still need a way of individual salvation before the Blessing. There needs to be a way of individual salvation for the 6.7 billion people in order for them to receive the Blessing. That is why we re-established the Unification Church. Is that clear? Do you understand?

You and I both pray. We pray hard, but it is not easy to meet God, to find the gateway to our heart and match it to the gateway to God’s heart. We do not really understand where our gateway is and we cannot really sense where God’s gateway is.

What is God’s wavelength? What is the number? On the television, for example, each channel has its own wavelength. With the radio, if we do not get the wavelength exactly right, it is very noisy. We get a lot of static. So if you want to listen to the radio, you need to make sure you have the correct wavelength. In order to experience God, in order to resonate with God, in order to meet God, we need to match God’s wavelength.

Now that science is very developed, the evidence of meeting God can be seen through the brainwaves. Our general life consists of regular length waves called beta waves. When we are praying, our wavelengths become longer, alpha waves. We keep going and we develop zeta waves, what the Buddhists refer to as the state of nothingness. That is where we meet God. That state takes us beyond the world of phenomenon and into the world of essence. That is also a certain kind of technique. How do people do that? There is an incredible technique involved in living as human beings. We need to have true love and we need to inherit true love to be true human beings.

What do you think the most difficult thing in this world is? It is to love human beings. That is actually the most difficult thing to do in the world. How is it difficult? It means that love requires a great deal of technique. We need to not only study the technique of love, but practice it. We need the habit of loving people.

Within our subconscious, God’s character needs to be imbedded into us. Prayer is the way for us to meet God and to come to resemble God. That is why we come to church, to discover God. We need to meet God. That is where the life of faith begins. Meeting God is the necessary condition to have a life of faith with God who cannot be seen.

Chehul means learning through experience. Father repeated that word many times. Chehul means to feel with our bodies, to feel through experience. To feel God with our bodies is where faith begins in earnest.

The title of today’s sermon is The Faith of Experience. We need to experience God, then we begin to change. We have fallen nature. There are many ways to meet God. Sometimes I go into God and sometimes God come into me. I meet God and experience His character of goodness, and that character permeates my heart. God’s divine nature permeates me and is inscribed on my heart.

As I continue my life of faith, my subconscious which is filled with fallen nature is continuously permeated with God’s character, then gradually my heart becomes the same as God’s. Gradually I become a better person, a more honest person, a more sincere person, a more humble person. My fallen nature is pushed out as my heart is filled with God’s nature and God’s character.

Father talks about our main job and our part time job. Our main job and primary purpose is to live life as original human beings, to complete the principle within us. Look at our daily lives. We spend a lot of time with what is secondary in our lives. But how much effort are we spending on becoming true human beings? Of course, we have hoondokhae and go to worship and make effort, but actually we are spending more time in our lives on things that are secondary – to go to elementary school, middle school, high school, university, then our jobs. These things are all secondary.

Ms. Yuna Kim won the gold medal at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Another Korean athlete was lifting 5000 kilograms a day. That’s how she trained to be an Olympic champion. Yet does that mean she became a perfect person? No. How much time are we investing in perfecting our character to resemble God? If we think honestly about it, we are not investing enough time.

In the Buddhist temple, there is an engraved saying: “Study until you die.” If you receive worldly honor or glory, it doesn’t mean you have become a completed person. Don’t get caught up in seeking public recognition. Rather, you should pray and meditate.

There is a story about a young Russian Orthodox priest who watched an old lady come to church and faithfully pray. As time passed, the old lady eventually approached the priest and asked, “Why doesn’t God appear to me? I pray every day without fail!” The young priest answered, “You wonder why God doesn’t answer you but you don’t give Him a chance. You are always too busy talking about yourself in your prayers. Why don’t you try sitting in silence and listening for a change?” Then the grandmother tried his advice and she had an incredible experience. God came to her and she was very moved.

Like children who are always demanding things from their parents, we have to grow past this stage. There is a root of consciousness, a sixth sense, that opens our communication with God. We have to develop this by making time to pray. Then our body will shake with His presence.

If we feel our life is too busy and we don’t make time to pray and meditate, then we will be missing the most important thing in our lives. Our primary purpose in life is to grow our heart and consciousness to resonate with God. Right now, our lives are pushed along like a twig in a river. We sometimes feel out of control, with no room for choices, only responsibilities. Yet if we take a moment to still our minds, we can maintain a connection with God. In muddy water, if it is still, the dirt will fall to the bottom and the water will become clear. In the Bible, it says, “Only the pure of heart will see God.” In this way, we should remember to stop and meditate and pray daily.

If we concentrate enough and seek to still our minds, we can hear our own heart beat. But we don’t need to be a meditation acrobat. We only need to quiet our mind and focus on True Father’s words on a daily basis as we seek to practice true love. This is the purpose of hoondokhae. There are three ways to incorporate God’s words into our lives: intellectually, heartistically by practicing true love, and through prayer. Not everyone can do the first two, but everyone can take time to pray. No matter how busy your schedule is, please take time to meet God in this way. If you have this attitude, God will speak to you, even in the sound of the wind.

The East and West often have opposite ways of doing things. In the Western Christian world, people are lead by the words in the Bible which says, “The Heavenly Kingdom belongs to those who take it.” But in the East, we tend to be more quiet and invite God into our lives. Some people like to copy True Father’s words by hand. This gives them a deep experience, which we have heard from many Korean followers.

Overall, hoondokhae is done for the purpose of involving True Parents in our lives. If we can feel close to True Parents, we will feel close to God. Let our minds be quiet and resonate with True Father’s words. If you connect with a certain verse or phrase, allow your heart to bond with it as you experience joy. You must first feel joy and happiness in order to love others.

We are now at the palace of God. Do you feel joy, or are you burdened with worries? Do you feel distracted by your duties of work, family, or distributing Father’s book? While in church, we should put aside our worries and renew ourselves by feeling the support of others. Worries come from feeling alone. We need to live with God and True Parents. We should seek to be with them.

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